There are a number of ways in which you can be disappointed with an information request:

→ You only get part of the information you asked for (but no formal refusal) - this is called an “incomplete answer”;

→ You are told that the information “is not held” by that government department;

→ You are granted partial access but some information is withheld on the basis of exceptions;

→ You are refused access to all the information or documents that you asked for;

→ You don’t get any reply at all (“administrative silence” or a “mute refusal”).

In all these cases you have a right to appeal. The mechanisms for appeals are discussed in Section I and the chart in Annex D.

Before appealing an incomplete answer check that your question was in fact clear enough or whether it was possibly open to misinterpretation. If you think that it was not clear, then you might want to go back to the public body informally and try to clarify.

In the case of information not held you need to check if you think the answer is credible. If you think that the public body does hold the information but maybe does not want to answer your request (or maybe just that the public official was badly informed themselves) then you could decide between an informal or formal appeal. It might be worth trying an informal clarification about what you wanted before launching a formal appeal. If, however, you think that there was deliberate obstruction going on, a formal appeal is recommended.

In the case of partial access, full refusal or administrative silence, the best option is often to appeal. The first stage is appeal to the body which refused to give you the information or which failed to answer you. You should check what your national access to information law says, but normally the appeal letter can be sent to the head of the institution. In countries which have good access to information laws, there will be a simple and clear system for filing appeals. The second stage of appeal is either to the courts or – if your country has one – the information commission or commissioner, or the Ombudmsan.

TIP! If you are not sure what to do for the first stage of appeal, contact the office of your information commission/commissioner or Ombudsman and they will be able to help you. If you don’t have such a body, try phoning the institution which issued the refusal and asking them. If you still are having problems, then let Access Info know about it and we will try to help you, for example, by giving you the contact of an NGO or lawyer in the country. 

Making a story out of refusals. The refusal to release information following a request is often a story in itself. In the UK, the government’s refusal to release legal advice relating to the Iraq War was a story that ran and ran. The reluctance of the UK Parliament to release MPs expenses in spite of court rulings to do so was also an ongoing story – and when the information was eventually leaked it was a major scandal which caused quite a few members of parliament to resign, resulted in an order to MPs to pay back a total of as much as €1.5 m ... and sold a lot of newspapers in the meantime!

Check list before writing a story about incomplete answers and refusals:

- Look carefully at the request to see whether it was clearly worded and whether the public authority might have misunderstood you were asking for: you don’t want to criticise a public body for failing to answer a request that was badly written or confusing. If you are not sure, ask a couple of your colleagues.
- Check carefully which information you were given (if any) as well as what you were refused. That way you can make a clearer story focusing on what the government is actually refusing to provide.
- Be very clear if you are planning to appeal or not: it’s not clever to state in an article or on the air that you are planning to appeal against a decision and then to do nothing – public authorities will get used to the empty threats and may be even less inclined to grant information in future if they think that they can get away with it. You may need to discuss with your media organisation’s lawyers before you take a decision on whether or not to appeal, or talk to a specialist access to information organisation.

TIP! If you have been refused information that you wanted for a story you are working on, it might help to state in your internal administrative appeal that the information is needed for a media story and to state that there is a public interest in knowing that information. It’s also important at this point to refer to your rights under the access to information law and/or constitution. (Of course, if you don’t want the public authority to know you are working on a story, then don’t mention it).

TIP! Once you have drafted the first internal administrative appeal with references to the law and your rights, just keep the letter in your computer and you’ll find that you have a template for future appeal. That will save you time as it should only need a little bit of changing depending on the content of the other requests.

Legal Leaks Help Desk: If you have filed a request for information and it has been ignored or denied, we’d like to hear about it. We will try to find a way to help you, for example by giving you advice on how to appeal of finding an access to information expert or lawyer in your country. Click here to write to the Legal Leaks Help Desk.